Items For Mia
by Skylark Starflower
Summary: What was Elk doing after Omega Graceful Tempting Fallen Angel? I know, it's a rather bad summary.


Authors Note/Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to any of the .hack games, they belong to the wonderful people at Bandai and whoever else is responsible. ^_^  
  
Well, well. My first and probably last .Hack fic. ^_^ I dunno, it all depends on if I get another good idea or not. ^_^ And I don't know how Elk's real life player might really look like were Bandai to design him, but I designed my own version of what he may look like to use in this fic. Even though you won't be seeing him for very long. Anywho, enough chatter, let's get to the story. ^_^  
  
"Items For Mia"  
  
By Skylark Starflower  
  
Started March 21st, 2004  
  
Finished March 22nd, 2004  
  
The young boy sat, staring at the login screen for The World without really seeing it. His arms hung limply at his sides; he was still too shocked to move. Regardless of the looks he was getting from his father, he remained at the machine for another several minutes before he finally picked himself up and made his way up the stairs and to his room.  
  
Honey blonde hair fell across his face as he removed his glasses to wipe the water spots from them. He choked back a sob as he slid them back on.  
  
"Mia...why'd you have to do it, Kite? Why?"  
  
* * *  
  
It was late at night and the house was quiet. Most of the occupants were asleep, all but one. The boy often snuck downstairs to play The World once his father was asleep. He knew he would be in trouble were he to be caught, but it was the only time he could really play. During the day, his time was limited to half an hour, and, when he had still been helping Kite, BlackRose, Helba and the others, he knew he would need more time than that.  
  
A few days had passed since the events at Omega Graceful Tempting Fallen Angel, and he had spent a lot of time thinking about things and what had happened. He had come to a decision at last, and, once he was set up, logged into The World.  
  
* * *  
  
Elk materialized in the root town for the omega server. Taking a quick look around Lia Fail, he could see Kite and the others weren't around. No alerts from the flashmail came to invite him to a party, but it was just as well. He had something he needed to do first.  
  
The Wavemaster headed over to the Elf's Haven and withdrew an item he had been saving, although now he had a different use for it than he'd originally intended. The Heh Heh Heh , the last weapon Kite had gifted him with last he'd joined against the Wave, firmly in hand, he made his way back over to the Chaos Gate. Bringing up the menu, he entered the keywords. The same keywords that had been haunting him for the last few days.  
  
Graceful Tempting Fallen Angel.  
  
He warped in on the area map and before he activated any portals, called the Noble Grunty he'd bred for purposes such as this. He usually traveled in a party, Wavemasters being rather ill suited to fighting alone, but he had to do this by himself. Riding the Grunty, he headed to the dungeon and entered.  
  
The monsters offered little resistance as he made his way down to the bottom level, and he began to think that perhaps he wasn't as useless as he thought. This was a fairly high level dungeon, and he was making it through by himself, after all. And not for the first time, either. When Mia had changed into her Wave form, she had done...something, to him. He still didn't know for sure just what had happened. After he had logged back into the game, he'd made his way down as quick as he could, in hopes of helping in some way, but he had been too late.  
  
Now he was returning. He knew that he wouldn't see Mia there. Her character data had almost certainly been deleted once Macha had been defeated, but he couldn't help the small part of him that still believed she existed. He knew she wasn't alive, she was just a character AI inside a game.  
  
But he wasn't there to see Mia. Reaching the bottom floor of the dungeon, he used his Fairy Orb to illuminate the map so he could avoid as many monsters as possible as he traveled to the last room. The room where Mia had become Macha, and then had become nothing but a memory.  
  
Reaching the entrance to the room, he paused, his nerve faltering. He wasn't really sure what he would find once he went through that door. Reaching into his robes, he pulled out the item he'd withdrawn from the Elf's Haven. He rolled it between his fingers, just staring at it for a moment before steeling himself and stepping into the room.  
  
He felt somewhat let down. He had found exactly what he was expecting, an empty room, but he had been hoping against hope it may have been the strange field that it had become when Mia had undergone her change. And that perhaps, even though he knew it was impossible, Mia would have been there, a grin spread across her cat-like features, asking him if he'd found any new sources for Aromatic Grass.  
  
He sighed, and walked to the center of the room, the item he'd brought still clutched in his hand. Kneeling, he set the piece of Aromatic Grass on the floor. Then he stood and walked back to the door. Resting one hand on the door frame, he turned for one last look.  
  
"...goodbye, Mia."  
  
With that, he ran out the door, heading off to find Kite and the others to offer his help once more against the Wave.  
  
The End 


End file.
